well we were a bit confused by it all. but we have our mortgage through northern rock and they are the only ones who would give us a mortgage. but we went through our estate agent.

Ha ha same here, on 100% mortgage! how weird though, we had more income than yourselves, but had less mortgage.... I think its all a big Con!

thinking about it now, i think the 'mortgage' amount is 120k or something and the rest is on an 'unsecured loan' provided by northern rock.. so perhaps its more expensive the way we've done it. but it meant we could buy a one bed house as we werent allowed a dog in a flat as it would still be a leasehold even tho we are buying

Not necessarily true. We live in a maisonette, leasehold, housing assosiation. I own a cat, dog and 2 ferrets. Some places are ok with it. But yes i can see why you have gone for a house

Our mortgage is 110k i think and 5k unsecured loan. I have no idea what that means though...

ah ok. the one we went for the landlord said no pets at all. but apparently even if he had said yes, if someone complained then he could make us get rid of the dog.
so we decided we didnt wanna risk it, and moved about 7 or so miles outside of the area we wanted to be in and bought a one bed house 5k cheaper and a nicer area...

i dont understand any of the mortgage nonsense

You definitely need to shop around with mortgages. However be advised that every time someone runs a credit check on you to find out if you would be eligible for a mortgage, you will lose points on your credit score if you dont take up the product. I wasnt aware of this when i was searching for a decent mortgage until after i had had about 8 different mortgage companys run credit checks on me so there was a good chance i'd lost a few points!! It is also a good idea for you and your partner to look into your credit score beforehand on a site like Equifax - www.equifax.co.uk
Also while you may never have been in debt before, if you have not had a lot of things on credit, you may still not have a high score as you have not 'proved' that you can make regular payments. Crazy huh? If you havent needed to borrow money and have got by just fine without borrowing you are considered more of a risk when you DO want to borrow money!!!!!!!

I took the mortgage out all on my own as my partner had awful credit and i knew mine was at least ok even tho i hadnt really had stuff on credit before. The income was 40k and we could have got mortgages as high as 190k however we wouldnt have been able to realistically afford the repayments as we are still paying off OH's credit cards, loans, car and stuff. In the end we went for a 95% mortgage at 143k and borrowed the deposit off my father in law. Our mortgage is a 2 year fixed rate with Abbey and it was the cheapest one i could get. We found a great deal on our house too - dont be tempted to go with the first one you like! lol its very easy to fall in love with the first one you see!!

Northern Rock will give mortgages much more easily than some other companies but you may not always get the best rate you could. With NR, borrowing the same amuont we would have been paying about £100 a month extra over the same times period. However several other friend have mortgages with them and they have been fine. I believe they also specialise in 100% mortgages and ones for first time buyers.

If you want to ask me anything feel free to pm me it wasnt long ago that i went through it all myself and im pretty good at finding a cracking deal
House hunting is a very fun and exciting time but it can also be tiring and stressful and emotional. Whatever you do keep your cool! All the best and keep us all updated!! x